Finalists for The DADI Awards 2018 revealed
The Drum Awards for the Digital Industries (DADI Awards) judging has been and gone and we can now reveal the lucky nominations.
This year the judging panel consisted of 45 experts who were impressed by the talent that the industry continuously creates.
Managing partner of Karmarama, Hannah Matthews said: “One thing that has been really interesting about today is the sheer variety of entries. Within digital today that's everything from digital communications, social media influencer campaigns all the way through to big website build, UX and digital experiences. It has been incredibly hard to judge to judge one against the other.”
One of the categories that really stood out for the judging panel is Use of Social. Sabine Bullmore, head of CRM, Digital Studios at BBC Worldwide. She said: "Social media is constantly changing and there is a lot of innovation. We can definitely see that this year's entrants tried to be innovative and look at different platforms but also bringing them together to deliver on the strategy."
Some of the Use of Social Media nominees
The finalists are: 1000heads Ltd for npower and Team England at the Commonwealth Games; Direct Line Group for Direct Line’s Fast Response; Endemol Shine UK for Celebrity Big Brother 2018; Merkle|Periscopix for reed.co.uk; Mindshare UK for Three; PMG for Beats by Dre - 1 of 1; Poke London for EE BAFTA 4G style scanner; RAPP UK for Buxton Water - Go Big Together; RAPP UK for Virgin Media - No one does a plus one like Virgin TV; Reprise for Fuller's London Pride: #WhenItRainsItPours and Tangerine communications for Pizza Hut Restaurants.
Another category that showed great excellence is UX/Usibility. Pete Markey, marketing director at TSB said: "The one category that stood out for me was UX and usability because it had some really amazing entries. All of that excellence on behalf of the customer and I think that's what made it stand out, how you can really achieve digital excellence by putting the customer first.”
The finalist are: Affinity for CurtainsCurtainsCurtains; Affinity for Sharps Bedrooms; AmazeRealise for Lexus; AmazeRealise for Unilever; Athlon for Open Banking; Dare for BMW; Manifesto Digital for Notting Hill Genesis; Nomensa for Liberty Global; Tesco Bank for Tesco Bank customers and Turkcell for Turkcell Core.
Some of the UX and Usibility finalists
One of the biggest awards that agencies want to win is Agency of the Year. Judge and group creative director of Head Sports Company, Gion-Men Kruegal-Hanna said that being a creative himself, agency of the year is one of the most exciting categories to judge but also a very polarising category. “This is because the agency world, especially in the UK is changing. So, what are the parameters you apply in picking a winner? Is it a big network or is it a private company? You have big creative agencies that are internationally located or family businesses with a couple of employees that do the similar creatives, projects and bring results that are just as impressive.”
The finalists for Agency of the Year are: Accenture Interactive, eight&four, Greenlight, Impero, Kairos Media, Manifesto, Matter Of Form, Merkle | Periscopix, M&C Saatchi Mobile , Pulse and The Hook Labs.
For the past twelve years, founder and event organiser of Podge Events, Phil Jones has been the ring leader in pulling together our all-star judging panel. He said: "Every year I try and make sure there is a nice mix between brands, digital agencies, design agencies etc and putting them into groups is half the fun. Asking people that don't really know each other, to sit together and discuss work they would never normally see.
"This year has probably been the best one yet in terms of the quality of the judges. The over all vibe in the room has been great."
You can view all the finalists here. The awards ceremony will take place on 10 October, you can purchase tickets for the event here.
Headline sponsor of these awards are UKFast and sponsors are Shazam.